Horseshoes and hand grenades

As in almost. They almost got me last night. Driving home on that narrow road in the narrowest part with barely room between steep mountainside and the river, and me tired and half mesmerized by the road, a moose came sliding down the mountain out of the upper darkness into my headlight beams with what appeared to be all intentions of running out into the road, Years ago I had been looking at a small herd of caribou near the road and a truck driver went past laying on his horn. The caribou jumped away from the road and I realized the driver did this as precaution. I filed that away as maybe a better reaction than brakes if i were to encounter a moose in the road and it has worked for me every time but, um, well, twice. Well, when this moose came careening down the steep slope I hit the brakes and horn at the same time and he turned, running along next to the car in the ditch. Mind you, the distance between us was only about 10 feet but it was enough and I got past him. That is the second time I have seen a moose in this stretch of road in the past three days, a place where I hadn't ever seen one before. At any rate, it was close enough to get the adrenaline flowing and though that created the urge to get home a lot faster, caution prevailed and I went considerably slower the rest of the way.